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emilykat-artblog18 · 8 months

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The Other Port

(chapter 2)

.:: The Black Cat of The Port ::.

As both Ten Cents and Sunshine were heading to the cafeteria, many questions lingered in Ten Cents’ mind like a low mist on the horizon, “Who made those dolls? What is the key for? And why were they inside the storage room?”

“Ten Cents, Ten Cents!” Sunshine grabbed Ten Cents’ shoulder, snapping him out of his trance as he nearly walked into me.

“Oh, sorry about that, Captain Starr sir” Ten Cents said embarrassedly while Sunshine held the dolls tightly behind his back.

“It’s ok Ten Cents, I take it you both finished cleaning out the storage room?”

“Yes Sir, We were just on our way to the cafeteria.” Ten Cents nodded,

“Good, may I have the keys back?” I held out my hand, “Oh right! I almost forgot about them.” Ten Cents searched in his pockets

“Here you go sir,”

“Thank you,” I turned my gaze towards Sunshine.

“Anything you want to report to me as well, Sunshine?”

“Me? Uh no sir. Nothing to report”

I was feeling tired myself, so I didn’t bother asking anything else and let the two on their way, “Have a good night you two.”

“You too, sir” Ten Cents and Sunshine chimed together as I walked away, Ten Cents let out a sigh of relief, “Well that was almost too close for comfort,”

“You’re telling me,” shrugged Sunshine.

“Let’s just get something to eat and then hit the sack, ay?”

“I just hope someone got us good food this time.” Sunshine grumbled.

When they entered the cafeteria, they saw Big Mac, O.J., and Top Hat sitting at one of the tables chatting amongst each other about their day. O.J. turned and noticed Ten Cents and Sunshine.

“Welcome back lads. I hope you both aren't burnt out from your last job.”

“Meh, it was just storage cleaning. Nothing that we couldn’t handle.”

“Did ye find anything interesting in that old room?” Big Mac asked

“Well actually there is.” Sunshine soon reveals in his hands, the button-eyed dolls.

“What is that?” O.J. asks, having to look closer at the dirty dolls.

“And why do they look exactly like both of ye.” added Big Mac.

“That’s what we’ve been wondering too when we found them. Do you know who made them?”

“How should we know about some filthy old ragdolls from the garbage?” Top Hat remarked.

“Oh like how your head is full of nothing but garbage?” remarked Sunshine, insulted.

The crew all had a hearty chuckle at the joke except for Top Hat who was most offended but couldn’t think of a comeback for he was feeling tired.

“Speaking of garbage, where's Warrior? I thought we saw him walk past with you, Big Mac.” Ten cents asks.

“He already went to sleep. Don’t worry, he showered before then.” answered Big Mac

“Ah well we should go get our meals before-’’

“It’s just rations Ten Cents.” Sunshine groaned,

“What?! Again?”

“Sorry boys, with the constant busy work schedule we have this whole month we don’t have time to make meals so we resorted to using rations and other instant meals. It’s not much but it’s what we’re going to have to work with for now.” O.J. explained feeling sorry for them.

Looking back at the rations, Ten Cents sighed in defeat, “Well then, I guess we’ll just grab some and go back to our bunks…”

And with that, Ten Cents and Sunshine reluctantly grabbed a ration for the both of them and headed back to the barracks. O.J., Big Mac and Top Hat could only watch as they left until O.J. spoke.

“It’ll be alright boys, it won’t be like this forever.” trying his best to give them some hope from the situation but already left out of earshot.

Once at their bunks in their pajamas, the two ate their rations, they were as dry as the sand on the beach and not very appetizing.

“You see what I mean, Ten Cents?”

“About what?”

“About wishing that our current situation was better where we don’t have to work as hard.”

Ten Cents gulps and sets his ration aside. “I get what you mean, I know it’s been hard on all of us and they’re still doing their best, but I won’t lie, I miss when we had decent food and less of a heavy workload to handle.”

“You think that’ll ever happen soon?”

“Probably not for another few more weeks of this.”

Ten Cents looked over to the nightstand next to his and Sunshine’s bunk beds. Sunshine had placed the two old dolls right next to a framed photo of their whole fleet including their captain; When times were better, especially since they took it welcoming their new recruit, one who he was very fond of since they met.

Ten Cents yawned knowing another day of hard work awaited them in the morning. The two said nothing and threw away their rations into a nearby trash bin, and got ready to sleep.

“Tomorrow’s gonna be another busy day huh?” Sunshine yawned as he began to nod off.

“Yeah, another hard day of work...”

Ten Cents answered, shutting off the lights, the room now only being dimly illuminated by the moon outside their window shining down on the dolls. As the two slept however, a black silhouette of a cat overshadowed them and observed them beyond the window.

The morning sun shone brightly as Ten Cents, Top Hat, Warrior, Big Mac, Hercules, O.J. and our new recruit, Tillie stood in the employee lounge waiting for me to give them their orders. Everyone except for Sunshine was present in the employee lounge.

Although it seemed all the older workers of my company were focused on getting their schedule for that day. Sunshine was trying to figure out how to bring his doll look alike to work with him that day, once he came up with a solution, he made a dash to the employee lounge.

“I’m so sorry everyone, I… nearly overslept,” lied Sunshine, “I’m not late, am I?”

“Nope you just came just in time, Sunshine.” Ten Cents assured him

“That’s a relief”

“Alright everyone settle down!” my voice rang out through the PA speaker.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do today, a tramp steamer is arriving into the port and we’ll need all hands on deck to dock and unload it. Hercules, you’re in charge of bringing the tramper in, Big Mac, Top Hat and Warrior, you three are to help guide it in,”

“Yes Sir.” Hercules, Big Mac, Top Hat, and Warrior affirmed before proceeding to their respective vessels.

“What about the rest of us sir?” Tillie queried.

“You three are to help anchor the tramper to the dock, O.J. will show you how.”

“Yes Captain Starr!” Ten Cents, Tillie, and Sunshine affirmed before following after O.J.

On their way to where the tramper was to be docked, Sunshine couldn’t help shake the feeling that they were being watched.

To confirm his suspicions, he looked behind himself and noticed something dark moving on top of some crates.

“Hey Ten Cents I think I see something?”

“Oh yeah, what's up?”, Ten Cents asked,

“It’s over there by the cra-” Sunshine pointed. But as soon as he returned his gaze at the crates, the thing was nowhere to be seen.

“What..?”

“You must've been seeing things. It's still early today but come on, there's work to be done”

They picked up their pace to catch up to Tillie and O.J. As they continued to walk past the glistening ocean, Sunshine couldn’t shake off his confusion.

He swore to himself that he wasn’t seeing things but he couldn’t figure out how even though the thing disappeared from his sight, why he still felt he was being watched.

The crew all suddenly stopped as they caught sight of Zorran, Zebedee and Zak, some of the employees of Zero Marine, our rival, were on their way to work as well.

“Well look what have we got here lads? Scrooge McDuck and his nephews?” Zebedee and Zak guffawed at Zorran’s remark.

“Shut up, we’re only just on our way to do our jobs,” Ten Cents said.

“What? off to get another contract?”

“We’re just on our way to bring in and unload a tramp steamer that’s all.” Tillie replied,

“Kindly leave us alone and we’ll be on our way-” O.J. retorted.

“Wasn’t trying to start any trouble with you, old man” oiled Zak, “Yeah, was only trying to make friendly conversation” Zebedee added sarcastically, “Also nice doll you got there Sunshine” Zebedee mused.

“What doll?-'' Tillie looked back at Sunshine and noticed in his binocular bag was a button-eyed doll that resembled him sticking out of it.

“Aw, you plan on having a tea party after your jobs of the day?” teased Zak

“Is your age now the number on your uniform, Sunshine? How cute.” Zorran joined in.

Sunshine’s face was as red as his hat as he tried to hide his doll.

“Oi leave him alone or else-!”

“Ten Cents, don’t even think about it”, snapped O.J.

“Or else what Ten Cents? You gonna fight me?” Zorran challenged

“Don’t you dare, lad” O.J. scolded holding back one of his arms.

“Let me at him, O.J.!” Ten Cents growled

“Hey calm down now… let's get going before you do something you’ll regret,” soothed Tillie.

“Yeah, listen to your little girlfriend Ten Cents!” Retorted Zorran, this was the final straw, Ten Cents won’t take any longer.

“Oh now you’re -!” yelled Ten Cents lunging at Zorran.

“That’s enough Ten Cents!” shouted O.J.

O.J. and Tillie tried to hold Ten Cents back from the Zeros, all the while poor Sunshine stood in utter silence afraid and ashamed to do anything when he turned his gaze to a rooftop of a building and saw the thing he saw earlier on the crates, which turned out to be a cat. He couldn’t believe it when he saw it clearly now as it stared at him.

“Hey there it is again!” Sunshine shouted pointing up to the rooftop making everyone, even the Zeros look up. Tillie and O.J. took it as a chance to get both Ten Cents and Sunshine out of there before things could escalate further and grabbed their arms and took off.

“Hey what are you two doing?”

“Getting us away from them” O.J. groaned

Once they weren far enough from the Zeros, Tillie heaved a sigh of relief

“Now Let's keep going, we can't be late for the tramp steamer.”

“Yeah you’re right.”

“Be a lot more sensible, will you, Ten Cents?” shouted O.J., “If we hadn’t dragged you out of there, you could’ve gotten into even more trouble.”

“He was only trying to defend Sunshine, that’s all.” Tillie explained.

“Did you guys see it?” Sunshine chimed in

“See what?”

“The black cat, I saw it earlier on the crates. It was on the rooftop!”

O.J. stood in confusion.

“I didn’t see it, Sunshine, it was the heat of the moment that distracted us.” Said Tillie

“And if we did that’s something we shouldn't worry about. Ten Cents, please learn to keep your head on straight, will you? Last thing I want is something bad to happen to you.” OJ pleaded.

“I will in future, I’m sorry O.J.”

“Good, now let's head over to the dock, that tramper should be here at any moment.”

And so they did, but the thought of the black cat still played on Sunshine’s mind.

The sound of a chorus of tugboats blowing their hooters indicated that the tramp steamer was ready to be docked. Ten Cents, Sunshine, Tillie, and O.J. had arrived on time.

They watched as Hercules, Big Mac, Warrior, and Top Hat moved the ship close to the dock. A couple sailors aboard the steamer were at the bow and stern holding ropes.

“Right lads,” said O.J., "You must work quickly to safely secure this ship to the dock. Tillie, you’re with me in securing the bow, Ten Cents and Sunshine you two are in charge of the stern. Grip the ropes with both hands and tie them to the cleats, we must work together on this, should you lose your grips, this tramper could end up floating away from the dock, understood?”

“Yes O.J.!”, Ten Cents, Sunshine, and Tillie chimed together.

The young stars and O.J. took their positions at the ends of the ropes while Warrior, Big Mac, and Top Hat stood at their tugboats in case.

“Ready lads?!” called O.J.?

“Ready!” declared Ten Cents, Sunshine, and Tillie.

“Good, release the ropes!” O.J. shouted towards the tramp steamer.

The two sailors threw down the long ropes from their vessel and they landed down on the quay. Ten Cents, Sunshine, Tillie, and O.J. ran and grabbed hold of the ropes.

“Ready to pull!” Ten Cents called out.

All four Stars on the dock did their best to safely moor the vessel, Ten Cents and O.J. were holding strong to the ropes as Sunshine and Tillie tied their ropes to the cleat hitches.

But as they worked, Sunshine thought he heard the sound of a cat meowing behind him.

Turning to where he heard it, he saw the black cat yet again from the rooftop and the crates.

“Hey Ten Cents, I see the cat again.”

“Can it wait Sunshine, I’m busy here” Ten Cents strained.

“But Ten Cents it’s only over-...”

As Sunshine pointed over to where the cat was, the rope began to slip out of Ten Cents’ hands.

“SUNSHINE DON’T LET GO OF THE ROPE!!”

(To be Continued)

{End of Chapter 2}

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#this is tugs #bigg city port #The Other Port AU #tugs humanized #my AU #coraline au #this is humanized #tugs ten cents #tugs sunshine #tugs captain star #tillietugswitcher #Captain Starr #tugs oj #tugs tophat #tugs big mac #tugs zorran #tugs zebedee #tugs zak #things are about to get interesting

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